My thesis (Copyright@2009 by Ubaldo DiBenedetto):
As such, the gospels have illustrations, at last, and Giotto is their first color illustrator.
These staged performances, sacre rappresentazioni, or passion plays, were presented only during Easter week in the roman arena--an amphitheater, actually--where the wealthy Enrico Scrovegni built the chapel.
I also propose that Giotto was the architect who designed the chapel, and the artist who had to sector the hundreds of square feet of wall space having in mind the many events to paint with life-size figures.
He had to know in advance that he was to paint 38 gospel stories in order to sector the walls properly in accordance with their
religious relevance and proximity to the spectators eyes.
Indeed, the wooden model--what commissioning clients demanded from architects-- is what Scrovegni is offering to the Virgin in the fresco "The Last Judgement."
Consider this: What else was there that would have filled all that wall space with stories that illustrated the gospel events read during Mass?
Where would Giotto, who was no thespian, have gotten the idea on how to narrate stories with visual language consisting of poses, gestures and facial expressions and how to properly "block" the figures as if on a stage except from the medieval theater where they had centuries of experience?
Proof:
Six characteristics present in the 38 frescoes are the original and unique characteristics of the medieval theater.
I teach Italian Renaissance art and Harvard University SCE and I dedicated a number of years of research in order to establish Giotto's dependence on the medieval theater.
For example, I can now explain why we see TWO infants instead of ONE dressed in swaddling clothes and highlighted with golden haloes in the fresco "The Birth of the Virgin."
I can also explain why the thousands of theologians and bishops, who visited the Arena Chapel after it was consecrated, allowed the two infants to remain as depicted.
I am able to explain why the fresco "The Kiss of Judas" is historically incorrect because, when standing in front of it, we first see Saint Peter slicing off the ear of a soldier, then Judas embracing Jesus and, finally, Caiafas, pointing him to his men.
BUT, according to Mark, the event took place exactly in the opposite order of events.
Yet, no changes made either before of after the fresco was painted for reasons I have been able to determine.
Also, why are all the backgrounds in Giotto's frescoes all blue, and how can healthy trees grow out of smooth rocks as they do in "Joachim among the shepherds" and "The raising of Lazarus?"
An exceptionally source of pictures of Giotto's frescoes is:
www.wga.hu.
I am Ubaldo DiBenedetto, Ph.D.
I have been teaching Italian Renaissance Art at Harvard University SCE since 1979.
In 1978, I won the Jose Vasconcelos Gold Medal Award for a study on the authenticity of a portrait of Miguel de Cervantes.
I have recently lectured at the National Convention of Teachers of Art, Indianapolis, IN. (2005); Purdue University Art Department (2006); Museo of Genti D'Abruzzo, Pescara, Italy (2008).
I have published books and articles on the Renaisance and authored the novel Polar Day 9 (New York: Berkley, 1993) under the pseudonym Kyle Donner. I am 81 years old and a proud disabled Korean War veteran.
dibened@fas.harvard.edu
